Day 41: Ah Go On

Bus Eireann, Ireland’s public bus service is more red setter than greyhound; cheery and up for short runs rather than lean and long distance, quirky vignettes rather than horror stories.  I was travelling at the front of the bus on my own from Waterford to Cork when Peter quezzed in beside me at Youghal, he breathed a Guinness welcome on me. Sure he was no harm he told me and asked would I join him for a pint in Midleton his final destination.  I bristled, contracted and pursed my lips in irritation. He wouldnt be diverted from his intention, like a dog with a bone I had to shake him off his one track intention with the only thing that works in Ireland – conversation.  The problem with that is that it opens things up for everyone else in the bus to get involved.  The drapper heavy-set chap in the seat behind starts mumbling through the gap about getting the driver to stop at the hospital to pick up his medication because he had trouble with his mind.  I wanted to say that is the trouble with all of us but bit my tongue rather than fan the fires.

Peter, my Guinness breathing companion, for that was his name had now told me about his early life in the USA and his work as a fitter, his wife who did her thing and let him do his – a recipe for a very happy marriage, his 5 children and their scatterling travels to Australia, Amerikay and Germany, the future daughter in law from Poland and the grandson in Canada.  A dewdrop of the Irish diaspora all in one family.  But it all kept coming back to that one drink he wanted to have with me in Wallaces in Midleton.  He would forgive me not having an ould drop of the black stuff and would be happy to share a bottle of wine;  he had never bought a whole bottle of wine.  Despite the inevitablity of this loop in our conversation I was beginning to enjoy Peter.  He told me about his visit to Kilkenny, the homeplace where his 84 yr old brother lives alone.  Before he left that morning he got up and made him porridge, followed by rasher (of bacon) and sausages (he forgot the eggs, though there were plenty there), light the fire and and he washed up the dishes.  He also turned the heating full blast but was sure to turn it off before the brother came down.  I was softened by his caring and his mischeviousness, I noticed the time creased skin on his hands, the neat cleanliness of his nails, the white hair and the sharp lines of the recent haircut, his well worn corduroys and the comfort of his tweed jacket.  We covered a life time in 30km, the hard edges of separation transmuted into the soft burr connection, two lives momentarily intersected.  He was surprised to be at Midleton and had to gather himself abruptly but not before one last try of an invitation.  I held my ground as he mock complained to the bus driver about my lack of compliance.  I watched his jaunty step up the street as he left the poignancy of our interlude behind.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

Day 38: Tackling Tory Hill

Ireland is not known for it’s towering mountains but rather its gentle, rolling, ice sculpted slopes of soft boggy earth, furze, fraghan or hort berries and somnulent sheep.  A slow drive across the border from Waterford into Co. Kilkenny and Tory Hill just 44 feet shy of mountain status.  I chickened out on an outing here in December to celebrate the winter solstice sunrise; the warmth of my bed overuled the lure of pagan festivities.  The proposal of a 10am start from my friend Marie, The Sea Gardener – an expert on foraging and nutrition of the sea shore, on a perfectly delightful late Spring day was a far more attractive invitation.  We slide from our slow drive into the rhythm of a gentle climb under the full warm breathe of the sun with canine companions Topsy and Lucy.  This unprepossessing hill revealed its magic at the Marian Cross summit.  To the east the vista stretched across wind turbines to Mount Leinster and Mount Brandon, to the south Tramore’s Catholic Church spire a smudge on the horizon.  A throne to the heavens on a beautiful day like this, the frauchan flowers just beginning to show, it is no surprise this place has a history that stretches back to the Greeks, is associated with druidic tradition and, I discovered on my post visit research has the remnants of the three chambered Faranogue Court Tomb.  In the 1700 and 1800s it was a refuge for Irish outlaws and in fact the name Tory is derived from the Gaelic Toraidh meaning one who is persued by the law.  More recently the hill was identified as an ideal site for a transmission mast but not everyone was in agreement.  A night time mission by torchlight succeeded in dissembling the mast and now only the concrete foundation remains as a reminder not to mess with this hill.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

Day 37: Terrific Tramore

I spent my teenage years growing up in a holiday resort.  Living at the top of the hill in the armpit of Tramore Bay Summer nights were alive with the sounds of  ‘down around’,dripping with t he public yearning of Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsborg’s Je t’aime or raspy with Rod Stewart and The First Cut Is The Deepest.  It is still the place I come home to.  In the winter the silent arcades are locked up against the salty fingers of the sea, the hurdy gurdies are hunkered down in the face of boisterous south wester weather.  In April the Easter knock is Summer’s wake up call, Spring has arrived and Tramore is crowned the tidiest town in the province and third in Ireland.  Road markings are being brightened up, there is a major clean up on the beach, sprucing up is the order of the day and outdoor tables are poised for sunny custom.  The beach is a sandspit across Tramore Bay, a wide yawn of sea between the Great Newtown Head, crowned by the ever watchful metal man , and Brownstone head.  Never quite reaching across the Saleens gap the sand heaps and gathers into a conflagaration of tumbling dunes and backs onto a salt marsh that has invaded the folly of a racecourse on Neptune’s territory.  It is a glorious day for a walk and a smooth Americano at T Bay Surf & Eco Centre.

100 Days of Awe is a playful project I set up to bring my attention to awe in my daily life. I see awe as wonder, a mixture of amazement and respect.  I expect the experience of awe to be about perception shifting awareness and that demands a reframing of some sort.  I am excited to see what will awe me on this journey.

Anne K. Scott is an imagination technologist, her work to teach, facilitate and deliver innovation for individuals and business.  She is the creator of FindYourMojo a FREE iPHone productivity app. If you are interested in what intuitive coaching can do for you please do contact me.  I support clients all over the world.

Tramore Bay

I grew up in the space where the earth meets the sea in Tramore, Co. Waterford in Ireland.  I love this space and am drawn to it wherever I travel.  This time last year I was in California in the romantically named Half Moon Bay looking west across the Pacific Ocean, being filled to expansiveness in the space where the earth meets the sea.  This is what I wrote:

Early in 2009 I was introduced to the concept of living my life intuitively and establishing goals created from my imagination. This blew my mind; intuitive choices are not SMART goals. They are often not specific, far from measurable, as to attainable, realistic & timely well I had brain freeze when my imagination advised me that I wanted to be a global warrior of discovery leading the way and connecting people through the warmth of technology. What the bleep!…..! Almost four years on I feel exactly like a global warrior of discovery. I now create choices as New Year resolutions and wait to see them manifest just by gentle consistent action to connect with each choice intuitively.

As of February 2012 I have been on the road, following the breadcrumbs to live and work a life guided by my heart. In the past 5 months I have been sailing in the San Blas Islands in Panama, collecting shells on the freezing shoreline of Satellite beach in Florida, sipping coffee overlooking the chilly surf in Ireland and today I have just walked the Half Moon Bay coastal trail in California. I dont tell you this to impress but rather to illustrate the penny dropping of a choice created intuitively. I love the space where the earth meets the sea. This choice has effortlessly being manifesting in my life almost unbeknownst to me. Lovely lyrical wording that at a logical level sounds like I love the shoreline but putting it like that underestimates my journey and the experiences I have had. I notice that I am drawn to walk along the shifting line where the sea tickles the land; I love the treasures that are found there and tell tale trail of ocean detritus that mark the segue of the tides but there is so much more.

I recollect that one of my favourite distractions in school was my geography homework. I was particularly drawn to maps and to drawing maps using a rainbow selection of coloured markers to artistically mark out where land masses and bodies of water came together. I would get lost in these creations to the detriment of less inspiring subjects such as physics or chemistry. My submissions were works of art. At the time I had no idea why I was so compelled to pour so much love into such a narrow activity. Now I make up that I had a deep knowing that there was something about that space that opens up inspiration and creates energy for me.

When I am tired or overwhelmed being by the ocean calms me, sleeping on the ocean soothes me, sailing the seas expands my mind, distracts me from the rational and steeps me in my imagination. I am always refreshed, energised and thinking expansively after a spell by the sea. I am rushed by the wild chaotic femininity of the sea and the steadfast masculine anchoredness of the land, I love the fusion of these two forces at the shoreline each bringing their own gifts together to create a space that is a child born of the two. Whether looking at a map, hunkering over a magical tide pool, drinking in the San Mateo hills, watching kite surfers dancing around the jagged tooth Maverick rocks, being tricked by warm sun & cold breezes, ear wigging on conferences of gulls or buzzed by macho pelicanos there is magic in this place. I am not alone in my fascination with this space – there is a nebulous yearning that rivets many of us to Coast, the magnificent BBC TV creation now on its eighth series, which exquisitely charts life in the space where land and sea come together.

Today I was filled to overflowing with a knowing that goes beyond understanding that where the earth meets the sea opens up doors for me that are foundational to living the fullness of the life I love. I am ready to sign off on the creation of this choice and embed it as a fundamental underlying structure in my life. No longer is visiting the sea a nice to have in my life it is a basic necessity and I am looking forward now to diving deeper into that space by creating a new choice to lead me to more discovery.